Sympathy for Mr Vengeance (2002)

Film one of the Vengeance trilogy. Does this set of films start on a high note or not?

I know you're a good guy, but you know why I have to kill you.


This Korean film shows the story of a deaf-mute, Ryu, as he tries to earn enough money to pay for an organ transplant to save his sister's life. Along the way he loses his job, has all his money taken and loses his own kidney. When he looses both his job and money he goes to his anarchist girlfriend for help, when she suggests kidnapping his old boss' (Park Dong-Jin) daughter for randsom. However, things take a fast and unexpected twist shortly followed by another. Things are spiralling out of control for Ryu and Dong-Jin as their paths for vengeance start to cross.

This film sounds like it maybe very packed and/or confusing, but thankfully this isn't Hollywood. The films don't have to be less than 100 minutes long, so it is a full two hours. This gives plenty of time to set the scene and tell the story. Which it does extraordinarily well. For a revenge film, the revenge doesn't start until 1 hour 20 minutes are up. This includes the kidnapping, the unexpected events and a nice scene of Ryu at work.

There are many reasons why this film works so well. The music, the script, the scenery, the simplicity of it all. Unfortunately, not so much with the acting. Although the film is all in Korean (which I cannot speak), I felt like a few too many sequences were over acted. This was clear through the subtitles and the way the cast were acting. There was also one character who served only one purpose. He was physically challenged and played one role in identifying who the kidnappers were. I don't understand why he couldn't have been just anybody. It wasn't even a subtle disability, he struggled to walk, had both arms always stretched out to the furthers they could go and didn't even say anything on screen.

The music was, however, one of the best parts about this film. It was rare and far between, leaving many scenes with just the background sound. The suspense and tension wasn't built up with the aid of the music, everything in the shot did that, the few times the music was used was to show Ryu had noticed something was wrong.

The other great thing about the sound was how it was used in the factory to show how deafening it would be to someone who could hear. The management were walking through with ear protectors on and one was talking, but it was too loud to hear what he was saying, then it cut to Ryu with no protection on at all. There are a few other scenes when it cuts to his point of view, and there is literally no sound at all. This gives such a good idea of how life would be for him.



The imagery in this film is chosen well. It is rare to actually see any violence or fighting. It leaves so much to the imagination. It also leave more time to story telling. In the scene above you watch two deaths, then when the third person goes to attack you see their weapon then it cuts away to another scene. When you get back to the character you see the damage done and you know everyone has been killed. It is a great way to shoot films and should be done more often.

The script was a great addition to an already wonderful film. Because Ryu is mute he is given no voice. Even his internal thoughts are shown as subtitles. Everything that is said has its purpose at some point, even if that purpose does seem worthless in the long run. Many things are done to show how kind and caring Ryu is to people, before his loss. However once that has happened, the change in him is clear and apparent.

This film succeeds on so many levels that modern Hollywood films have no chance of even hoping to be. This is down to the big budgets, poor casting and the need to show off how many special effects can be crammed into one film. Sympathy for Mr Vengeance takes a step back, then a few more. Everything done in this film has a purpose. No point is made for the sake of making it, everything has its contribution toward the story, even if it is very short term. I love the way they have filmed this, how things have been kept simple and the cast. Everything besides the few points of over acting, fits together just the way it should to create an astounding film.

Rating; 8.7/10